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Key Club Faculty Advisors Honored with Key of Honor

Thursday, October 17, 2013

The prestigious Key of Honor Award is the most coveted honor bestowed by the Key Club International Board. This award recognizes an individual who has gone above and beyond the call of duty in dedicating his or her energy to serving the youth of our nations.

Two Key Club faculty advisors were honored as Key of Honor recipients at the 2013 Key Club International convention in Washington, D.C., this past July.

Charlene Masuhara, the first recipient, has been supporting Key Club’s youth as a club advisor for more than 30 years and served as a regional advisor for four years. Masuhara, or “Ma” as her students affectionately call her, serves the Key Club members of Hilo High School in the California-Nevada-Hawaii District as the Key Club faculty advisor.

From incoming freshmen to accomplished seniors, she is consistently shepherding the process of learning, be it academia, life skills, sportsmanship, leadership, service to others, personal character, interpersonal relations, honesty, integrity, sharing or team-building.

Masuhara supports and promotes services from the heart, encouraging the Key Club members she advises to have passion for the service they provide to others. She continues to be someone who is reliable, who provides well-grounded counsel in times of turmoil and who puts others before herself.

The second Key of Honor award recipient, Carolyn Hamilton from the Kentucky-Tennessee District, has been supporting Key Club’s youth as a faculty advisor for more than 20 years. Throughout those two decades, she has changed lives. Sometimes she’s done it quietly and indirectly. Other times, the good she’s done for Key Clubbers is well known. Most often, she changes lives without even realizing it.

Immediate-past Kentucky-Tennessee District Key Club Governor Katie Stuart says, “Mrs. Hamilton has had a far-reaching impact upon my life, and I hope one day to guide young people as she has guided me.”

Immediate-past District Secretary Emily Meffert says, “I ascribe much of my growth as an individual to this person’s encouragement and direction.”

Hamilton also has a positive effect on many adult volunteers. Jonathon Fields, Hamilton’s former colleague, credits her with showing him how to be the right kind of Key Club advisor. “I learned a great deal about caring, serving, and how to lead students from the back of the room rather than in the front behind a podium,” Fields says.

Another former student, who is now an educator, continues to be impacted by Hamilton as an adult. “I strive to connect with my students in the way that this person connected with me, by showing them that I truly care about their success and fulfillment, not only in the classroom but also in life,” he says.

Share your congratulatory messages with the 2013 Key of Honor recipients in the comments below.